Upcomings…

With November first just around the windy corner, I’m gearing up for some wild action in my novel-writing world. Yes, I did complete my rewrite of The Guesser, Book One in the Hangman series. Because of this feat, I can begin to submit it to contests and, of course, to query agents in hopes that one of them will fall madly in love with my work and want to rep me. As I’ve been reading  The Guesser over for the bojillionth time, I’m being inspired like crazy to begin starting book two in the series, and what better way to challenge myself to a ‘git-her-done’ contest then to participate in National Novel Writing Month – which is, you guessed it, the month of November! This is not my first time at this rodeo. I participated at least two times before – one time I actually wrote 50K, and the other I wrote just over 25K. We’ll see how this write goes. I’m hopeful. I’m inspired. And the characters want to keep on livin’, so I suppose I should pay attention and give them more life! I’m also pretty pumped to learn that Windsor has a NaNoWriMo writing group that will be meeting for ‘write-ins’. I’m gonna try and get to a few – see how it feels to write with others who are attempting this insane challenge.

I’ve been having a superb time visiting classrooms in all levels of education – elementary, secondary and post-secondary. Tis the season for guest speaking! I love engaging students and talking about poetry and writing. This week I was at St. Joe’s high school with the other poets who are part of Because We Have All Lived Here, an anthology about Windsor published by Black Moss Press. Previous to that I was at Glenwood Elementary for their annual read-a-thon. Next week, I’ll be at St. Gabriel speaking about character development, and sharing The Guesser with the students. Yesterday, I spent the day at Ojibway with the grade 11s/12s at Massey for a nature-poetry-writing workshop. Wow! Was it ever incredible!! Did you know, I finally wrote some new poetry! In mid-November, I’ll be a the University of Windsor to talk to teachers in Education about poetry and writing. What a gift it is to share writing with students! Thank you teachers for inviting me into your classrooms! If you’re interested in having me in your classroom, at your book club or anywhere else I can talk about writing, just let me know! Drop me a line, okay? (shieldsvanessa@gmail.com)

Readings are hot this season too! I organized a poetry reading with Peter Hrastovec, Deb Hill and Phillip Crymble at the Riverside Pie Cafe this past Wednesday! It was super! We had a very attentive audience, and enjoyed thorough readings by each poet followed by an engaging question and answer conversation. On November 22, I’m interviewing novelist Karen Dionne at Biblioasis about her new novel The Marsh King’s Daughter – it is being sold and translated all over the world and has been optioned for a film! Not to mention it’s made every ‘must-read’ booklist from Entertainment Weekly to the New York Times! Do mark you calendars and join us! It’s free!

I’ll be reading with the poets from Because We Have All Lived Here on November 30th, also at Biblioasis. Time and other info forthcoming.

And, I’m leading a workshop on journal writing as part of a series entitled Creative Living, created and hosted by Ruth Ann Wilhelm. It will happen on Wednesday, November 1st at Atelier Virginianne ( 1078 Drouillard) from 7pm – 9pm. If you’re interested, please contact Ruth. The cost is $25.00. All you need to bring is something to write on and with! Ruth’s contact: rabob@mnsi.net.

So…when will I write a post about my TedX? It’s coming. I’m still vibrating from the whole shabang. But it’s coming.

In the meantime, I’m hanging with the family, working on my novel, reading John Green’s new novel Turtles All The Way Down, reading Frost Blood by local author Elly Blake, and heaving out my sweat pants, sweaters and fall films!

What are you reading?! Have you pulled out your sweat pants too? Good on ya! Stay warm. Stay beautiful. Peace.